


modern love

by samanthalo



Category: Frozen (2013)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Coming of Age, F/M, Romance, Sister-Sister Relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-09
Updated: 2014-11-10
Packaged: 2018-01-11 16:51:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1175485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/samanthalo/pseuds/samanthalo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A series of drabbles and one-shots based on a modern au timeline.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've never really had an interest in writing an AU, but some of the AU Frozen fics going around are just so great and the idea of the events of Frozen playing out in modern times appeals to me for some reason. This series is an opportunity for me to write little blurbs about this world and the story I had in mind without getting bogged down in a long, multi-chaptered fic.

There was a terrible squeaking sound, worse than nails on a chalkboard, as the driver leaned on the brakes. She jolted awake with a grimace as the bus came to a grinding halt and her heavy backpack started to slide out of her lap. There were only a few other passengers still aboard and they were all too caught up in their own little worlds to notice her slight panic as she strained to see the read-out of the stop they were at. She let out a little sigh of relief when she realized there were still a few to go before she needed to get off. Tonight would not have been a good night to end up at the depot. A couple of teenagers boarded, laughing and jostling their way past her to the back seats, and the driver started off again as the doors shut with a loud clunk. Anna leaned back against the window as the world outside slowly started to pass by and the teenagers continued to chuckle. They were still going through the shopping district of town. Marquee signs and brightly lit store front windows began to stream by in rainbow streaks of light. She watched them with heavy eyes, wanting nothing more than to be at home in her pajamas, no longer responsible for the solid backpack full of books and papers.

The thought of pajamas only lulled her into dozing again, so when she was a single stop away, Anna distracted herself by making sure she had everything in order. It took her a few minutes to find her keys (languishing in her inside coat pocket tonight, not in her backpack or her jeans pocket or her boot) and confirm she hadn't left her phone on the seat beside her or lost the USB key containing the early drafts of her essay for English 101. She reached up and tugged the cord running along the window. A gentle but loud tone rang through the bus and Anna stood as the driver neared the next stop.

"A bit cold out there tonight. Stay warm." He mentioned as Anna stumbled a bit on the steps. She turned back just outside the door and smiled.

"Thank you."

It wasn't a long walk from the bus stop to the modest home she shared with her sister. It was somewhat smaller than the home they'd grown up in, still standing on the other side of town, but it was a comfortable size for just the two of them. Anna quickly wound her way through the darkened residential streets to the driveway, up to the garage door. She took off her mittens momentarily to punch in the key code to open the door. It lurched on its track and the night became full of grinding gears and sliding metal parts as it rose, revealing an empty cement slab. Anna's shoulders visibly fell and she simply stood for a moment outside, noting the absence of Elsa's sedan. Her stomach dropped as she walked in, disappointment developing like a cloud just over her head. The backpack felt cumbersome across her shoulders. She pulled out her phone as she pressed the button on the wall to close the garage door. There were no messages of any kind, no missed calls.

She made her way into the kitchen, throwing the backpack down by the dishwasher. Elsa hated when she dropped it there, but Anna felt that she made up for it by keeping her promise to hang the keys on the prescribed hook next to the refrigerator. Elsa's key ring was gone, just like her car. Only a few lights remained on, one of them above the stovetop. The blue-white of the halogen bulb cast the counters and linoleum floor in a ghostly glow. Anna looked around the kitchen and dining room wearily and sighed. There was a note pinned to the refrigerator that told Anna what she already knew. She read it anyway, fingernail tapping impatiently beneath every beautifully scripted world.

_At the office. Don't wait up - E_

“You were there last night too.” Anna grumbled, trying to squelch down the slight sting at the thought of her sister preferring the solitude of the office over the warmth of their home. She pulled the paper from its magnet and crumpled it in her hand to throw it away, but stopped short, hand poised above the open garbage can. At first, she thought she might have just been tired. It was late for a week night. Her eyes were dry and bleary. She rubbed at them, forgetting about her makeup, before peering closer into the bin. The bright, cheerful bouquet she'd picked up from the florist on her lunch break was sitting just inside the opening, as if someone had swiped the vase across the counter into the pile of styrofoam containers and dirty paper plates. Anna carefully extracted the thin assortment of carnations, daisies and baby's breath. They still smelled pretty, even wrinkled and bent, a slight dab of ketchup clinging to the bottom of the glass vase. She fussed over the stems for a moment, making a face as her finger made contact with the glob of ketchup. One of the carnations had been snapped in the fall. It dangled by a thin, green fiber, bouncing against the vase as Anna ran the bottom just under the tap. The ketchup rinsed off reluctantly, leaving a dried, crimson line behind. 

Anna cradled the flowers to her chest as she made her way up to her bedroom, a determined frown pulling her features downards at her small act of defiance. There was an empty spot on her dresser, between the piles of clothes and jewelry. Anna set the vase down and turned it this way and that, considering it in a business like manner. The mirror behind the dresser reflected their brilliance twice and, above that, her own weary and somewhat sad face. She blinked at her own reflection for a moment before running her hands up and over her eyes, along the small ridge of her forehead, and into the tangled, snarled strands of her ginger hair. She needed to get to sleep but sleep wasn't going to come easy. Putting the moment off for a moment longer, Anna bent and buried her nose between the petals, breathing deeply and finding calm in their fragrance. She didn't care what Elsa thought. Not every floral arrangement smelled like a funeral.


	2. Chapter 2

“Anna, were you...looking for something upstairs?” She looked up from the boiling pot of macaroni she was drooling over, the steam collecting in little droplets across her freckled nose and cheeks. Their mother had always insisted a watched pot never boiled, but Anna was watching it, and it was certainly boiling. The saying should have been more like a watched timer never ticks. She glanced at the microwave timer with a small frown as the digital numbers ticked by steadily but oh-so-slowly.

Elsa was standing just beyond the bar with a stern but anxious pull to her features. Her hair was still smartly pulled back into an expert chignon, her favored hairstyle for work. Anna could see the modest but brilliant shine of small diamond studs in her lobes. 

“Anna?” Elsa pressed. She wasn't looking at Anna directly. Instead, her eyes were cast somewhere up over her head, aimed at the top of the oak cupboards. 

“Upstairs?” Anna repeated purposefully as she idly stirred the macaroni with a worn, wooden spoon. “Umm-”

“In the hall closet, to be more specific?” Elsa offered, a sharp edge to her voice. She flicked her eyebrows up quickly to punctuate her point.

“Oh, oh, in the closet, yes!” Anna smiled brightly. The timer beeped and she hurriedly flicked off the burner the pot was boiling on. “I was looking for my parka, you know, the down one with the fur-lined hood? It's been getting colder out, a lot colder, and I've been freezing at the bus stop-” She rambled cheerfully as she searched for the pasta strainer beneath the counter. Elsa cleared her throat loudly and meaningfully.

“You left a mess.” A mess was a bit of an exaggeration. Anna had left a carefully stacked pile of memorabilia outside the hall closet door, which happened to be right next to Elsa's bedroom. 

“Actually, I left that stuff out on purpose.”

“What?” Elsa's eyes narrowed and she folded her arms across her chest. She fixed Anna with an accusatory look

“I didn't know we still had all your skating stuff and I thought maybe you didn't know either.” It was a bit of a fib. Anna did know that Elsa had packed away her skating gear away years ago. She had just forgotten that she'd stuffed it into the top most shelves of the closet, until looking for her coat led to the boxes of ice skates and leotards falling none-too-gently on top of her head. Like Newton with the apple, she'd sat amongst the mess for only a few seconds before being struck by probably the best idea she'd had all month.

“There's a reason it was in the closet, Anna.”

“I know, I know, so its out of the way, but the outdoor ice rink in the park just opened and I-”

“Just, put it away when you're done eating, alright?” The microwave timer beeped again, loud in the sudden tense silence. Anna stood slowly, pasta strainer in hand.

“But, I thought we could-” Elsa looked up sharply. Her brows furrowed, just for a moment, in an almost pained way before she caught herself. Anna noticed. “We just haven't seen each other very much lately.” 

“Look, I know what you're trying to do.” Elsa leveled bluntly. She pinched the bridge of her nose and winced. “It's not happening. Now, I've had a really busy and tiring day and all I want to do is finish up a little bit of work before going to bed. Could you please, please do me a favor and put all of it away before you turn in?” Anna was ready for this. She had prepared for it, worked out all of her responses, but Elsa didn't give her time to speak. She watched crestfallen as her sister practically fled from the kitchen and listened to her take the steps two at a time. A short moment later and her door slammed shut in its frame.


	3. Chapter 3

For being such a large building, the campus health center was never very busy. Anna slid in through the sliding doors, brushing the wet, slushy snow from her parka and glanced around the lobby. There were only two other students waiting this morning, both looking rather haggard. They both were blankly watching a morning news broadcast on the mounted television screen in the corner. Neither spared a glance as she stomped her boots on the rubber mat.

“Good morning.” The receptionist jumped a little as Anna leaned over the high countertop of the registration desk. The widescreen television behind her was running a scrolling outline of second semester campus events, punctuated every so often by pictures of smiling students at the Rec Center or at a hockey game. Anna's mouth quirked at the image of a group of girls, faces painted in school colors, waving pennants in crowded stands.

“Good morning! How can I help you?” The receptionist asked brightly, pushing aside a french dictionary. There was a small notebook filled with writing just beside her elbow. Each line was filled with rounded, flowing cursive lines. She thought the words looked as beautiful as they sounded. Elsa knew French. And German. And Spanish. Anna had tried to learn each. She had been horrible at every single one.

“Sorry to interrupt-” The television screen behind the girl flashed the time and date and Anna grimaced a bit. She was going to be late. Again. “Um, I have an appointment-

“Oh, sure thing, can I have your name-” The girl moved to open the appointment program on her computer, but Anna stopped her.

“No, not with a doctor. Well, I mean, I do have an appointment with a doctor, but not, like, a health doctor.” She spoke quickly, wincing a bit when the girl's smile faded a bit in confusion. “It's, um, a therapy session.”

“Oh!” The smile quickly returned to its beginning brilliance and she rose up a little out of her seat to point towards a bay of elevators. “Second floor, third door on the right.”

“Thanks.” Anna said, taking the directions politely even though she really didn't need them. The route was familiar to her after almost a year and a half of coming and going. Shuffling the backpack higher up onto her aching shoulders, she hopped over to the control panel for the elevator and pressed the rounded up button quickly. The girl readjusted her head set and settled back down into her seat. Anna caught a final glimpse of her through the closing doors, her stooped head and silent, moving lips.

The second floor was even less occupied than the main lobby. Anna stepped out of the elevator and took an immediate right, the sound of her parka and boots on the carpeting filling the narrow little corridor. All of the doors she passed were closed. The rooms through the windows were dark and empty. Campus was like that on Friday mornings. Everyone had someplace better to be. The stark absence used to be rather disconcerting. Now, it was almost peaceful, a welcome reprieve from the hustle of the weekdays.

She pushed into the small room behind the third door. It was inhabited only by a short desk and one or two chairs sandwiching a little stained coffee table and a strange assortment of magazines. Anna saw the wrinkled, ripped cover of Psychology Today barely covering a more crisp edition of Vogue, a smoldering actress posed on the cover. The reception desk for the Psychology department was empty save for a single silver bell labeled 'Ring for Service'. Janet, the administrative assistant, never worked Friday mornings. Anna was the only appointment. Dr. Olaf's door was open just past the desk down another little hallway of doors. Anna slipped towards it, jogging lightly until she was in the open doorway.

The desk inside this room was anything but empty. In fact, it was the complete opposite. The few black plastic sorting racks in the corners were overwhelmed with papers and manilla folders, so full they were rendered useless. More stacks littered the back windowsill, obscuring the view of the tree-dotted campus stretching south into the city. More books and papers were piled in small little towers around the desk and the cabinets, some leaning at a dangerous angle. In the midst of it all, an older, pale man sat carefully assessing his single computer screen, seemingly oblivious to the chaos around him.

“Now where was that...Oh, Anna, hello! Come in, come in!” Dr. Olaf stood quickly, lips pulling back to show an honest, albeit somewhat crooked, smile. There was a single tuft of white hair on the top of his bald head that moved like a cloud as he breezed around the desk to usher her inside. “Quite a blizzard for the end of January! Here, let me take your coat. Please, sit, sit!” She couldn't help but laugh as he helped her peel off the backpack (“My goodness, what do you have in this thing, rocks?”) and took her damp coat to hang on the rack just behind the door.

“It's been nothing but blizzards since the beginning of December.” Anna reminded him lightly as she took a seat in one of the comfortable, plush chairs poised before the desk. “Did you have a good holiday?” She asked congenially, pulling her legs in as he stepped around her to seat himself on her chair's twin. He walked with a slight limp from an old injury but it didn't appear to hinder him in any way. He gave a low hop over her ankles and spun around just in time to land on his seat.

“Oh, yes. I went home for a little while. It's so hard to find time to get back, you know” Dr. Olaf sighed happily, then jumped a bit as his attention turned back to her, “How rude of me. Would you like some hot chocolate?”

“Only if you'll have some with me.” Dr. Olaf laughed, rubbing his hands together happily.

“I would never turn down a good hot chocolate! Back in a jiffy!” He breezed out of the room, whistling a jaunty tune. Anna preoccupied herself with the view, idly twisting her right braid, visions of steaming mugs and floating marshmallows comforting her down to her woolen socks. Everyone else seemed to hate the weather, but she loved it. Campus transformed almost overnight into a beautiful winter wonderland. The lingering forgotten leaves disappeared. The rolling trash blowing uphill from the Rec Center vanished. All that was left was the deep, gentle tolling of the campus chapel and the haze of snowflakes. She sighed dreamily and look out beyond the dark silhouettes of the trees. The modest downtown buildings were just visible, iced over like layer cakes. They were the mountainous background to this magical world of hers, a topography of her own making. 

Cupboard doors slamming made her jump in her seat. The harsh noise was followed by light cursing and the flow of water in the sink. 

“How is your family?” She called suddenly, wincing when the first reply was a small crash.

“Everyone's quite well, thank you!” Dr. Olaf replied, his voice echoing in the small space. Another minute passed before he reappeared, carefully balancing two, incredibly full mugs in his gnarled hands. He set hers down on the desk before her. A few drops spilled onto some of his papers, but he barely seemed to notice. His eyes peered down into his own mug, practically overflowing with marshmallows. Were he a dog, he would have been drooling. “The flight was long, but Norway isn't exactly next door, is it?” He took a careful sip and smacked his lips. “But enough about my holiday. It must have been quite boring compared to yours. Tell me what you and your sister got up to.”

Anna's stomach dropped. She reached for her hot chocolate and tried to keep her smile carefully pinned to her face.

“Oh, it was very fun!”

“Busy with Christmas cheer?” Cheer was a strong word. Boring and lonely were better descriptors. The short afternoons answering phone calls at the bank before heading home on a cold, crowded bus was certainly not very cheery. Languishing in the living room writing final essays and coordinating semester-end projects with only a small, artificial tree and Mama's old wooden advent calendar for company didn't count either. She remembered being carted past the outdoor ice rink filled with laughing faces and families taking in the decorated trees, the light-up candy canes and presents stuck in the snow, and knowing that once her family had been among them. When she suggested to Elsa that they go, just the two of them, she was met with a tight-lipped, chilly stare and Anna was left to decide if she would go by herself instead. 

“Definitely. Decorating was fun this year. Elsa even helped. It's been years since she's gotten involved...” Elsa didn't help. She hadn't given the tree a second glance, not even after Anna had decorated it with the old, hand-blown glass ornaments from their grandparents. They had fought over who got to hang which little figure when they were children. Now, Elsa ignored them entirely. She stalked past the nativity organized neatly on the entertainment center and said nothing, even after Anna had switched the baby Jesus in the manger for one of the small donkeys. She changed something each day, hoping to finally catch Elsa's attention, to force her to rearrange it, to show she cared. When she packed all the decorations away, the three wisemen had switched places with the shepherds and they had taken over the manger.

“Splendid. Splendid indeed.” Dr. Olaf mentioned distractedly. Anna chewed on the soggy marshmallows in the cocoa and avoided his gaze. He tapped the armrests of his chair for a moment or two before he abruptly leaned forward. “So the usual then?” He asked, not ungently. Anna felt her shoulders droop. She was a terrible liar.

“Yes. The usual. She just doesn't...want to do anything anymore. Not since the accident,” She paused, mid-sip, and rolled her eyes, “Well, my parents' accident.”

“Have you two talked about it?”

“We haven't talked about anything. She's either at work or in her room. Sometimes I think she doesn't want to talk to me.” Anna leaned back into the chair. A phantom ache throbbed suddenly and acutely in her right temple. She set her mug down to rub at the offending spot.

“That's nonsense.” Dr. Olaf tapped her knee with a thin, knobby finger. “She just doesn't know how to talk to you. Do you remember how hard it was for you when you first started seeing me? It takes time and patience.” He shot her a meaningful look, thin and salt-pepper eyebrows raising high above his bright eyes.

“But how much time?” Anna whined. “I'm trying to be understanding, I'm...I'm trying! But-”

“Invite her to our next session.” Dr. Olaf interrupted. “Feel free to bribe her with my hot chocolate.” Anna stopped short. She opened her mouth to retort, then closed it with a snap. An image of ice skates and boxes of garments piled in her room, instead of a high closet shelf, gave her hope where she otherwise might have had none.

“I'll try.” She said finally, ignoring Dr. Olaf's pointed look of doubt.

"That's all I can ask for. Cheers." He held out his mug, a chipped old thing painted a dull, yellowing ivory. There were chocolate stains dripping down from its rim. He always gave her the nicer one. She reached over for her drink, getting cooler by the minute, and gently knocked it against Dr. Olaf's.

"Cheers."


End file.
